~The O'Neill Boys~

Today we met some awesome people!  We headed up to St. Albans to meet with the folks that host the Comedy for a Cause events at Chow!  Bella Restaurant.

We were greeted by Tom Murphy, Jimmy Matas, and Patti and Richard Bourbeau.  They got to see first hand how we have to squeeze the boys in and out of the van :)   Tom is the owner of Chow Bella, and I guess Jimmy is his right-hand man.  Colin Ryan, the head comedian, wasn't able to be there.  Patti and Richard are grandparents to an adorable (I've seen lots of pictures!) 1-year-old that was recently diagnosed with SMA in the area.

It's kind of hard to write about the meeting because there's more emotions going on that I can even write about.  The nitty-gritty is that we went over what the night will look like; saw the event room, talked about seating, 50/50 raffle, and that kind of stuff.  Talked about tickets and spreading the word.

But, the best part was sharing a little bit of our story.  And, learning a bit about Tom and his passions.  And, learning about Patti and her family and her grandson's story.

I'm sure it was a little overwhelming for everyone to see the boys and all of their equipment.  I kept trying to remember that we've been living this for so long now that it's normal to us, but to the average person we must look a little odd and intimidating.  But, I truly think everyone was happy to meet the boys and enjoyed them.  I wish Casey had been in a better mood :)  I was hoping he'd regale them with his DynaVox chatter but he clammed up.  Oh well.  Colin was a little more agreeable and made happy little comments throughout the meeting.

I told Tom that Casey was fascinated with kitchens (he always wants to go see Bill's catering kitchen!) so he let us take a quick tour.

So, now we sell tickets and look forward to the night!

Oh, and Tom said they like to have someone from the charity, or in our case, the family, get up and thank the crowd and say a few words.  I already called Peggy (Gene's little sister) and nominated her.  It's right up her alley since she's the President (or whatever it's called) of her Toastmaster's.  Perfect!  I certainly know I couldn't get up there and talk about the boys!

So, if you're interested in attending, please email me and I'll reserve you tickets!

caseyandcolinsmom@gmail.com


This morning the boys and I had some snuggle time.  It's getting to be that time of year again where it's perfect to get into bed with the boys with lots of blankets and pillows and watch movies.

This evening Nancy and the boys got in some Poptropica before it was time for bed.

I consider this a good day!